Homebuilders – Creating memories

Are there particular special times you remember from your childhood, times with your family that fill you with warmth and love when you remember them? Reflecting on those times, and talking to others about what they really treasure from their own childhoods, I’ve made a list of some no-cost/low-cost memory ideas to have fun and connect with young ones:

• Walking along the beach at low tide and wriggling our toes down into the cold sand in the shallow water to feel for the smooth-edged pipi shells, each pipi better than a gold nugget. Digging out moats and piling up sand into fanciful castles encrusted with shells and driftwood, then watching the tide slide in and nibble your creation away. In between the sandcastle work, burying siblings or an obliging parent so just their head pokes out. Walking slowly round the coastal rocks, looking for seaweed to wear on your head and crabs to sidle up to. Fishing for sprats off some unlikely wharf.

• Standing outside with a parent on a cold night before bed and looking at the stars. Going out to see the moon each night at the same time, for a month, to witness its way through its magic shape-shifting routine.

• Camping in the lounge under a hut made of chairs covered with a blanket and a sheet. Camping on the back lawn in a tent or, even better, under the stars. Being allowed to watch movies late, then all crash in the lounge together.

• Having an adult read your favourite story three times in row.

• Finding a good piece of rope and then heading to the beach or the park and making a swing in the highest branch you can. Then having an adult push you, until you feel like you are going to fly in a giant circle.

• Lighting a smoky fire at the end of the garden and roasting potatoes in the embers until they are charred black, and the insides burn your fingers, and they taste delicious and disgusting at the same time.

• Baking anything and everything. Scones, pikelets or, joy of joys, a cake. Then being told how delicious your lumpy creation is by a parent, as they grin and eat it with you.

• Drawing on the path with chalk. Making shadows on a wall at night with a torch and by moving your hands and fingers just right – look it’s a wolf!

• Bush walks, stopping and looking at the little things. Who can see the smallest insect? Can anyone find a smaller leaf than this? How many birds can you hear?

All fabulous ideas to be done with an adult, who wants to get into the spirit of the activity or adventure, to be silly and not rush. Just bliss!